Session
TU.3.D || Life Cycle Innovation to Drive Sustainability and Business Performance
Authors
Valente, Clara; Rubach, Synnøve
Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to explore how social LCA (SLCA) & social organizational LCA (SOLCA), can be used to shape the business model of companies that wants to be social sus-tainable both related to one’s own daily operation and the value proposition. It is especially concerned with companies at an early stage when a value chain and the internal and external business network (Håkansson et al., 2009) has not yet been established. Current SLCA studies do not really assess the social performance of products, because most of the indicators refer to the organizational level (Martínez-Blanco et al. 2015). Starting from the extensive list of indicators presented by Martínez-Blanco et al. these indicators have been fil-tered down to the most relevant for early-stage businesses based on social entrepreneurship. Further, these indicators have been used to extend business modelling guidance by using The Business Model Canvas (BMC) methodology, also known as the Osterwalder model (Oster-walder & Pigneur, 2010), as a framework. The findings have been tested through dialogues and workshops with a newly established centre for social entrepreneurship with a focus on work-place development for young people, refugees, and immigrants who are out of work in a Nor-wegian municipality. Contribution. This paper can help to increase the understanding of the practical use of SLCA & SOLCA and to define which factors can measure social sustainability, and of how start-up companies can use this methodology in their business modelling when the aim is to be social sustainable. It will provide an indication of how collaboration between public and private actors can contribute to and facilitate the development of more inclusive workplaces.